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Woman shows appreciation for four decades of care through donation

Posted
April 1, 2008

It was 40 years ago when Mildred Giordano
first made the 320-mile drive from her home in
South Dakota to the University of Minnesota. She
repeated the trip countless times over the years,
by car and by plane, seeking treatment at the
University’s Department of Ophthalmology for her
deteriorating vision.

Giordano had been plagued by cold sores,
an affliction caused by the herpes simplex virus,
since her high school days. In rare instances, the
herpes simplex virus also can attack the eyes and
lead to corneal infection, which can result in
scarring and loss of vision—even blindness in
some cases.

Virus-related corneal infections had damaged
Giordano’s eyesight, so in the mid-1970s, she received
a corneal transplant at the University. Before that,
she had had a conjunctival graft at the University
to ease her pain and buy time until her transplant.

That corneal transplant gave Giordano
more than 30 years of good vision—until macular
degeneration developed in her left eye a few years
ago. Over the past several months, the vision in her
right eye has become compromised by macular
degeneration as well.

“If you don’t have your vision, you really
are handicapped,” she says. “And I decided to
stipulate that the funds go to studying macular
degeneration instead of corneal transplants
because researchers have made a lot of strides with
transplants.With macular degeneration, they still
haven’t come up with all the answers.”

Giordano, who spent many years working
for the Department of Agriculture, lived on her own
until two years ago.When her worsening vision
prevented her from driving, she moved into an
assisted-living complex in Huron, South Dakota.

Giordano regularly receives books on tape
from the South Dakota Service to the Blind and
Visually Impaired. “I call it hearing material, not
reading material,” she says. The employee who
fills her orders has learned that Giordano likes
biographies and high-quality love stories and often
makes recommendations.

Although she now sees a doctor closer to
home, Giordano remains extremely appreciative
of the care she received over the years from
University of Minnesota ophthalmologists John E.
Harris, M.D.,William H. Knobloch, M.D., and Donald J. Doughman, M.D.

“Dr. Harris, who has passed away, was
something like a country doctor,” she says. “Years
ago he even gave me his home number. But when
I called him at home once about a concern, he said,
‘Mildred, you’d better hop on a plane tomorrow.
I can’t diagnose you over the phone.’ So that’s just
what I did.”